French PM Edouard Philippe has resigned. A new PM will be announced in the next few hours, according to the Elysée
And it won’t be Edouard Philippe again
Under the French Fifth Republic, it is rare that a president keeps the same PM for his entire mandate. Sarkozy was an exception:
De Gaulle: 3
Pompidou: 2
Giscard: 2
Mitterrand: 3 + 4
Chirac: 2 + 2
Sarkozy: 1
Hollande: 3
So replacing Philippe doesn't necessarily reflect a falling-out between him and Macron. Bar a few noted policy differences, they worked together well. In some ways it's actually a risk, as Philippe could build his own political future from Le Havre, where he was elected mayor
Edouard Philippe has in fact been more popular than Macron for most of their joint tenure. Since April the gap has widened. June poll average via @leJDD:
Macron 39%
Philippe 49%
Well few saw that coming. The new French prime minister is Jean Castex, Macron's covid-19 coordinator, and somebody largely unknown to the general public
This is what the new French PM Jean Castex looks like, because nobody seems to know
The new French PM Jean Castex is
-an énarque
-from the centre-right
-mayor of Prades, in the Pyrénées-Orientales
-former chief of staff to Xavier Bertrand, when he was a minister under Sarkozy
In other words, the perfect profile to enable Macron to run everything himself
The one new angle Jean Castex may bring to government is a close connection to la France profonde. He is mayor of a small village of 6,000 in the Pyrenees, and spends every weekend there. A new form of decentralised decision-making is expected to be part of Macron's "new course"
I understand that new French PM Jean Castex may appoint as chief of staff Nicolas Revel, who worked w/ Macron at the Elysée under Socialist PR Hollande. If so this is interesting. Revel was chief of staff to Bertrand Delanoë (ex-Socialist Paris mayor) so brings balance from left
And it looks as if Macron is going to give Philippe a new "mission": to sort out the chaotic presidential party and its centrist allies. If so, hard for Philippe to build his own independent political future🤔
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Macron on French TV this evening :
The war in 🇺🇦 is “existential…”If Russia were to win, life for the French would change. We would no longer have security in Europe. Who can seriously believe that Putin, who has respected no limits, would stop there?”
Macron: “All options are possible. In order to have peace in Ukraine, we cannot be weak”
Macron: “If Russia wins this war, Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero”
"After nightfall on Saturday April 22 Admiral Rolland put a call through to the president on a secure line…It was a dangerous mission, but Macron was ready to take the risk."
The inside story of the French rescue operation from Khartoum in @TheEconomist economist.com/1843/2023/05/0…
I spoke to the French military and diplomatic officials who planned the operation, as well as the pilot of the first A400M to land in Khartoum. The crucial early steps that France took – including taking control of the airstrip – enabled allies to conduct their own airlifts
A week before 🇫🇷special forces landed in Khartoum on April 22nd, diplomats in Paris at met at the Crisis and Support Centre. It was the day fighting broke out in Sudan. Two days later 🇫🇷began to plan for a possible evacuation, and the embassy contacted 🇫🇷 nationals on the ground
Updated figures from the 🇫🇷 foreign-affairs ministry, following two further airlifts from Khartoum, Sudan, that the French carried out on April 24th. France has now evacuated:
- 491 people, of which
- 196 are French
- 295 are from 36 other nationalities
Robust response on this from France, which expresses “consternation” after China’s ambassador to France Lu Shaye stated that ex-Soviet countries “don’t have effective status in international law” as “sovereign countries”. His comments below, to @DariusRochebin@LCI
What is going on in France?
Last night saw
- 1.08m protesters on the streets across 🇫🇷
- 903 acts of arson in Paris
- 457 people arrested across 🇫🇷
- 441 policemen injured
Why are the French so angry?
Is this another gilets-jaunes uprising?
Source: Interior ministry 1/
It’s too simple to say this uprising is only because the French don’t want to retire later, although that's true. The real anger, which the govt seems to have underestimated, is at the way it was done, using article 49.3, and the sense this embodies Macron's governing style 2/
Use of article 49.3 is legal and has precedent. Since De Gaulle, who used it to build 🇫🇷 nuclear deterrence, it has been used 100 times (incl 28 times by Rocard, a Socialist). It does allow for a democratic vote, since it puts the govt’s survival on the line. Macron’s survived 3/
Wow, France is really getting serious. According to an Elysée source, Macron has just spoken to Zelensky and 🇫🇷 is preparing to send Ukraine light combat tanks, thought to be the AMX-10 RC
And now confirmation from Paris.
No mention of numbers of these light tanks, which I am told will indeed be the AMX-10 RC. But Macron restates his message at new year: France will back Ukraine "all the way to victory" 🇫🇷🇺🇦